Feature Manager Agent

Inspiration

In project management (especially agile projects), there's a significant control problem: developers often forget to update the feature and task board, even when it allows them to stand out, either because they don't have time or because they don't like to (and just want to focus on coding). This creates a bigger problem because the manager doesn't know the project's true status and progress and has to contact each developer individually to request task updates (wasting more time than necessary).

Feature Manager Agent is a custom agent designed to simplify issue management through code analysis.

What it does

The Feature Manager Agent analyzes the issues in the GitLab project where it's installed, filters out pending issues (all except closed ones), and for each one, reads all the details and then reviews the project code to verify if that issue/feature has been implemented or is progressing.

If it's detected as implemented (a name and better description are better for the agent), it's updated to the "done" status, and a summary note is added for the manager. If it's not ready but progress has been made, it's marked as "in progress", and a note is added indicating the progress (first checking for similar notes to avoid duplication). And if there's no progress, the agent ignores the issue.

The focus is on making it easier for the manager to manage the project and know the status of each task/feature/issue, while also ensuring that these statuses are accurate because they were validated through code analysis.

How we built it

In this case, a custom agent was created with specific instructions using GitLab Duo, and the following tools were also connected so that the agent could execute actions:

• Create Issue Note
• Gitlab Blob Search
• List Dir
• List Issue Notes
• List Issues
• Update Issue

Challenges we ran into

Understanding all the tools and knowing which one is correct in each case (for example, reading files or directories depending on the task to be performed).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Create a simple yet powerful agent that not only chats but also executes (with final user authorization) updates to the issues and features board, designed to save project managers time.

What we learned

I learned to use GitLab Duo and the available tools, which made creating the agent quite simple; my biggest job was writing the correct instructions and validating them through testing.

What's next for Feature Manager Agent

Extend it with more features and integrate it into the flow with other agents, for example, for code security analysis.

Built With

• gitlab